Sixth-seed Tomáš Berdych beat 65th-ranked Martin Klizan of Slovakia 6-3,
4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 hours, 45 minutes Friday. Klizan double-faulted on
break point to give Berdych a 3-1 lead in the final set. Berdych then saved
a break point in the next game with a big serve. He fought off two more
break points in the last game to serve out the match. Klizan had 66
unforced errors. Berdych reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open two years
ago.

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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says if Petr Čech does leave the soccer club
it will be for a high price. The Czech goalkeeper became Chelsea’s second
choice between the posts after Belgian Thibaut Courtois returned from a
loan spell at the start of the current season and there has been
speculation he will move on in the summer. Mourinho said on Tuesday that if
Čech does want to end his 11-year association with the club, with which he
has won numerous titles including the Champions League, he will not try to
persuade him to stay.

Officers from the police’s organised crime unit have charged four people
over the illegal misappropriation of Ministry of Defence property. In
connection with the charges the unit carried out raids at the ministry and
at premises belonging to the company Excalibur Army. The supreme state
attorney, Lenka Bradáčová, said the four were suspected of breath of
trust and abuse of office. One of those arrested was an army officer, two
were from the ministry’s now defunct department for disposal of redundant
assets and one was a former manager at the company VOP CZ.

The Czech prime minister, Bohsulav Sobotka, has written to the president of
the European Commission informing him that the Czech Republic has fulfilled
a commission demand regarding the introduction of civil service
legislation, the Czech News Agency reported. Prague is now waiting for
confirmation from Jean-Claude Juncker that the Czech Republic has fulfilled
a condition for drawing on European Union funds. Mr. Sobotka wrote that he
expected the Czech Republic to be able to apply for funding from the EU’s
operational programmes in the coming weeks and other programmes soon
afterwards.

A regular test of the siren systems in Czech cities and towns will not take
place on Wednesday due to plans to use the sirens the following day to
signal a moment’s silence for the victims of a shooting in Uherský Brod
last week. The sirens usually go off at noon on the first Wednesday of
every month. A spokesperson for the fire service directorate said it had
decided to cancel the March test at the proposal of the minister of the
interior, Milan Chovanec. Eight people were shot dead in an apparent random
shooting in a pub in Uherský Brod before the gunman turned his weapon on
himself.

The mayor of Prague says the designer of the city’s Blanka tunnel must be
“a moron” (debil). Adriana Krnáčová made the comment after news
emerged that the tunnel would not be open until next year at the soonest as
hundreds of kilometres of water-damaged cables have to be replaced. The
mayor told TV Nova that moisture could be expected in a tunnel and the
designers must be stupid. However, a representative of the company that
planned the project, Satra, told Tuesday’s Mladá fronta Dnes that the
design had fulfilled all technical and safety requirements. Originally
meant to open in 2011 Blanka, which has cost Prague CZK 37 billion, was
most recently scheduled to go into operation in April.

This winter has been one of the warmest recorded in the Czech Republic,
according to the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute. The average
temperature from the start of December to the end of February was 0.7
degrees Celsius, which is 1.9 degrees higher than the average for the
period 1971 to 2000. However, last climatological winter was even milder
with an average of 1.2 degrees Celsius.

The One World international festival of human rights documentaries got
underway in Prague on Monday evening. The annual event opened with Warriors
from the North, which explores how a radical Islamic group recruits
volunteers in Denmark. The 17th One World will bring over 110 films from
five dozen countries to audiences in Prague before moving on in reduced
form to 33 other Czech cities and towns.

British director Sean Ellis is set to portray the 1942 assassination of the
Nazi governor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, in Anthropoid, a
movie named after the daring operation carried out by Czech and Slovak
paratroopers dropped near Prague. The lead roles will be taken by actors
Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy. Heydrich died days after the attack,
sparking Nazi reprisals that included the destruction of two villages and
the killing of thousands of civilians.

Five Czechs have made this year’s list of US dollar billionaires,
compiled by the US business magazine Forbes. The richest Czech Petr
Kellner, owner of investment group PPF, is reported to be the 160th
wealthiest person in the world, with assets valued at 8.4 billion US
dollars. It is the tenth time Kellner has been ranked in the Forbes’s
rich list. Agrofert owner and finance minister Andrej Babiš is 732nd,
followed by Radovan Vítek, Karel Komárek and Pavel Tykač.

A newborn boy was placed in a babybox in Vyškov in Moravia on Monday
evening at around six p.m. The founder of the Czech baby box network,
Ludvík Hess, said the child’s condition was stable. The baby, who was
given the name Dominik, was the fourth child this year to be abandoned in
this manner. There are currently a total of 63 baby boxes in the Czech
Republic, and in the past nine years, 70 girls and 46 boys were left in
them.